Nintendo is known for throwing the legal book at any entity that is mispresentating any of its IP, and it's shown through recent actions its more than happy to crack down on any company providing the tools to pirate its games.
Nintendo filed a lawsuit in US courts in June 2024 against Ryan Daly, the alleged operator of Modded Hardware, a company that Nintendo claims provides firmware and hardware to create and play pirated Nintendo games. Additionally, Nintendo claims Modded Hardware also provided customers with "copies of pirated Nintendo games." The lawsuit states Daly was offered a chance to walk away from Modded Hardware in March 2024, and both parties agreed that Modded Hardware's business would stop completely.
However, that didn't happen, and in May 2024, Nintendo issued a final warning. The US court filing occurred in the following month. Now, Daly has appeared in court without a lawyer to represent himself against Nintendo's allegations, and according to reports, Daly has denied any wrongdoing. Daly responded to the lawsuit claims by citing a lack of sufficient information to either admit or deny the allegations, fair use, an arbitration clause, failure to state a claim, invalid copyrights, a lack of standing, and more.
"Typically, when a customer purchases a hacked console or the circumvention services, Defendant preinstalls on the console a portfolio of ready-to-play pirated games, including some of Nintendo's most popular titles such as its Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid games," Nintendo's lawsuit claimed.
"Indeed, because pirated Nintendo Switch games cannot be used or created without a hacked console and related software and hardware, it is only because of products and services such as those sold by Defendant that illegal marketplaces distributing pirated games exist and thrive."